Welcome to episode 011 of Mud Stories! Mud Stories is a podcast dedicated to bringing you inspiration in your muddiest moments, hope to make it through your mud, and encouragement for you to know, you are not alone. In today’s episode I’m talking with Carrie O’Toole a counselor and life coach who lives in Colorado with her […]
For When You Compare and Feel Insecurity {Allume}
I begin in the west and fly halfway across the country before I finally arrive for the conference. The driver picks me up at the airport and I’m reunited with my online friend who started her journey this morning in the east. We chat a mile a minute and look forward to seeing our “smaller” […]
MS 005: Jennifer Smith, Unveiled Wife {Encouragement for Your Marriage}
Welcome to episode 005 of Mud Stories! Mud Stories is a podcast dedicated to bringing you inspiration in your muddiest moments, hope to make it through your mud, and encouragement for you to know, you are not alone. In today’s episode I’m talking to Jennifer Smith, founder and writer of Unveiled Wife. Jennifer began blogging in 2011 with […]
Why You Should Go See Mom’s Night Out Movie {Produced by Kevin Downes}
Five years ago, over seventy of us gathered for our 20-year high school reunion. And among those classmates was my friend, Kevin Downes. That night we caught up, as he shared all he’d been doing in the past 20 years, including writing and producing films with his brother Bobby. Kevin told about the coming release […]
When You Dare to BE in Community :: (in)RL 2014
It’s a scary thing to drive an hour alone and knock on a complete stranger’s door. Because who knows what you’ll find, when you meet on the other side of a computer screen? Maybe there’ll be cat hair on the couch and toilets with rings all the way around? Or maybe an attitude of pretense, […]
How God Uses our Messy Muddy Life
The more I read, the more I see how the Scriptures paint a portrait of a God who sees. A God who knows even me. Especially me. And who uses my life to paint His glory. He who is good and kind, just and righteous, divine and man. Acquainted with suffering and intimate with grief. […]
For When You’re Surprised by Motherhood {A Giveaway}
I still remember the first time I saw him. How that nurse picked him up in that striped hospital flannel and handed him to me like he was the sturdiest thing made. I’ll never forget the feeling–that overwhelming weight. Knowing there’d be no turning back, blended with a depth of love I’d never known existed. I […]
On Parenting, Divorce, and Feelings of Failure {The MOB Society}
Divorce feels like failure, and is always full of pain. I know. Matt was three when everything changed–his house, who he lived with, and his daily schedule. I’ll never forget the excruciating moment each Sunday night, as we met in the Thrifty parking lot for me to pick him up from his weekend with his […]
How the Truth Will Always Rise
The first storm of the year blankets the mountain white, and the falling snow rises onto everything. We drive up the hill in the sunshine of the next day, and to this California girl, it’s a winter wonder. Icicles hang themselves in mid-air, and snow sits tall on every branch and rock. It’s perched there, […]
(in)couragers Community Groups for YOU! {Fall 2013}
Woo Hoo!!! TODAY is the day registration opens for our (in)couragers community groups through the amazingly fantastic super-powers over at (in)courage! Last year I was blessed to lead an online (in)couragers group through the fall and the spring, and some of the connections we made have become real friendships full of love and support. In […]
